< Previous30 OCTOBER 2017 Care and maintenance Part 15: Whatcould go wrong with my reserve?This month John Warden of Aeroﬁx looks at emergency parachutes and deployment systemsBefore thinking about the reserve itself,it’s worth remembering that one of thebiggest factors preventing successfuldeployment is the pilot. If you’re low andyou lose control of your wing there’s verylittle time available, so don’t delay. Anddon’t let unfamiliarity cause potentiallyfatal fumbling.If you’re high then maybe there’s time totry and recover the wing. But bear inmind that a bad cravat could cause ahigh-G autorotation to develop quickly,and the disorientation might delay oreven prevent you getting to the handle. Iknow of two cases in the past year wherelengthy spiral descents have beenwitnessed without a reserve beingdeployed, perhaps because the pilot didn’tthrow the reserve before blacking out.So you’ve grabbed the handle and got thereserve out. It’s going to deploy OK, isn’tit? Sadly, not necessarily. I shared a videoto the Aerofix Facebook page recently of apilot messing up his Infinity Tumble andthrowing his reserve. The problem, as heOne of the pilots I know in my local club had reason to deploy his emergency parachute this summer, whenturbulence at the edge of a strong thermal caused a big collapse and he found himself gift-wrapped. His Beameropened quickly, and after a short period of going up again (at 1.5m/s under reserve) he escaped the clutches ofthis malign thermal and landed safely. I know this is a topic that probably no one likes to think about, but hissuccessful deployment prompted me to reﬂect: what might go wrong to prevent our reserve being the lifesaver it’sdesigned to be, and what can we do to ensure it will work properly?recognised in his excellent write-up, wasthat his throw was terrible. More of a dropthan a throw. So although his reservebegan to open, it immediately becametangled in the lines of his main and wasuseless. Fortunately, he was flying with asecond reserve. This time he prepared bywatching the rotation of his wing, andthen threw it hard, away from the main,and thankfully it worked.Another thing to bear in mind is thatdownplaning can significantly increasethe rate of descent. EN certificationrequires a maximum sink rate of 5.5m/sat the top of the weight range, which stillrequires a good PLF to avoid the risk ofinjury on landing. But I’ve seen reports ofnearly 10m/s when the main wing hasrecovered and begun to fly again, fightingagainst the reserve. If you were unluckyenough ever to be in this situation, onetechnique is to pull hard and hold in theB lines to disable the wing again, andthen pull the main canopy in.Now back to the reserve itself. As you’dexpect at Aerofix, rarely a day goes bywithout another reserve being repacked, sowe’re familiar with the manuals of all thecommon reserves and harnesses. Ifsomething unfamiliar comes in, we’ll alwayscheck the manual in case there’s someparticular quirk that needs to be considered.However it’s clear, from some of the kit weget in, that on the previous repack a certainamount of creativity has been substitutedfor knowledge, occasionally with potentiallydangerous consequences.It’s vital that when you pull the handlethe pins release readily. However, if thestrap from the handle to the reserve istoo tight, perhaps because the reserve wasinserted the wrong way round – with thehandle attachment point at the back ofthe compartment – this may not bepossible, or may require a very large force.If the reserve is a bad fit for the harnesscompartment (simply too large, or foldedinto the wrong shape), or the wrong handleattachment point has been selected, thereserve can jam in the compartment and beextremely difficult to extract.Some harness manufacturers are seekingto reduce the risk of incompatibility withthe reserve by providing a harness-specific deployment bag. For example,Advance and Ozone both make harnessesthat come complete with a deploymentbag, and not simply a handle to attach tothe inner bag supplied with the reserve.The reserve may need to be re-folded tofit the deployment bag, but these systemswork extremely well.When repacked the reserve andsuspension lines are enclosed in adeployment bag, the final closure flap ofwhich is secured by a loop of thesuspension lines being held in place byan elastic mouthlock loop. After beingthrown, the bag reaches the point wherethe bridle comes tight. When thathappens, the loop of the suspension linesslips out of the mouthlock loop, allowingthe bag to open.There can be two problems here: themouthlock loop can be too tight or tooloose. Too tight (or if the loop ofsuspension lines is too long and hasbecome tangled), and the loop of linesmay not slip out of the mouthlock loopand the bag will not open. If you throwyour reserve and the bag does not open,grab the reserve bridle and pull it as hardand as sharply as you can.Too loose, and the lines may slip freeinside the harness compartment duringnormal use: we had one instance thisyear where pulling the handle pulled thebag out of the harness, leaving thereserve inside the harness compartment.Deployment in these circumstanceswould have been extremely difficult andlikely to fail.Although it's perhaps an uncomfortabletopic to contemplate, I hope the above hasgiven you some points to consider oneautumnal evening.If you want to chat anything through,we’re always happy to offer help andadvice over the phone (01433 627195) or byemail 2017 31From top to bottom: Your reserve may have a two-stagedeployment bag like this one. The outer mouthlock loop (1)secures the suspension lines (2), and the inner mouthlock loop(3) secures the canopy (4). When the reserve is thrown, thecanopy remains contained within the bag until it has travelledthe combined length of the bridle and lines, at which point theinner mouthlock loop is released. Although this may takeslightly longer, the goal is to reduce the risk of the canopygetting caught on the harness or glider.123432 OCTOBER 2017 The site was fantastic, a huge flat fieldacross the top of a hill just inside the M25.Andy Shaw of Green Dragons provedhimself an excellent host, having the fieldmown just before we arrived, moving astatic caravan to a prime point for thedirector’s and scoring offices, and generallybending over backwards to ensure we hadeverything we needed. All good so far …except for the weather forecast.Many of you will remember July as a riot oflow pressure, instability and wind. Therewere a fair few flying windows too, butwhen they’d appear couldn't be predictedmore than about 24 hours in advance. Justwhat we needed!But this unpredictability persuaded me thatwe should proceed; over five days there wasevery chance we’d get enough windows tovalidate the Championship. Hope for thebest, plan for the worst. I had tasks pre-prepared to cater for all wind strengths anddirections, and a few new things I wantedto bring to the competition.The most important of these was to developthe Discovery Group and integrate it morefully into the main competition. TheDiscovery Group is separate class, designedto help new pilots learn the ropes ofcompetition without the pressure of beingofficially scored. These pilots represent thefuture of competitive paramotoring; theycould well be future British or Internationalchampions if we can encourage andnurture them properly.It was a major objective that they beincluded as fully as possible, and able toexperience the most enjoyable andeducational experience we could provide. Tothis end I re-wrote the task catalogue tomap out how Discovery pilots wouldparticipate in every task, and theallowances that would be made so that theycould learn by stretching their comfortzones. These included reductions in time ordistance limits for long navigations, theability to carry a GPS to ensure not gettinglost, and the chance to attempt spotlandings with engine on idle rather thanswitching off at 500ft. I also plannedextended briefings to provide strategytutorials for new pilots on how to plan theirtasks.Another new idea was the scoring systemfor the navigation task. This was a classicturnpoint hunt in which pilots have adefined period of time to collect as manyturnpoints (ground features like a churchspire or a road bridge) as possible. Underprevious rules this has been a speed raceand those on the fastest wings scoredhighly. This year I modified the formula toassign 50% of the points to the differencebetween a pilot's theoretical straight-linedistance between turnpoints and the actualdistance revealed by their tracklog. Theintention was to reward accurate navigationand encourage pilots to slow down a bit –deviations from the true course would becostly. It worked well and I'll be proposingto add it to the international task catalogueat the next FAI meeting.Another task, not used in national compsfor many years, was a long downwind XCflight with a land-out and transport back.It's hard to arrange logistically at yourhome field. Why not use the competitioninfrastructure to enable this? GreenDragons is well set up for this with aprevailing westerly wind and motorwayarteries running east into Kent to provideeasy retrieves. My thanks to the Kentparamotor club for offering the use oftheir fields as landing sites. To this end Ibriefed a 100km downwind snakenavigation to land on the Isle of Sheppey.Weather conditions prevented us fromflying it, but feedback from pilots washighly positive and I'll be planning asimilar task next year.British OpenThe British Open and British National Paramotor Championships took place in July at Green Dragons' Surrey base.It was Barney Townsend’s ﬁrst competition as a task director and a massive learning experience …Mark Morgan ﬁnished second in the British Open at Green Dragons 2017 33In the end we achieved six valid tasksincluding one navigation and one economy,the rest being spot- or skittles-landingtasks. Points were balanced evenly betweenthe three task types, as they should be. Itwas the best we could have expected withweather conditions as they were. For the first weekend the site was sharedwith the British Accuracy Academy Cup.This was a great opportunity to make newfriends from similar disciplines anddiscuss the similarities and differencesbetween our sports. At an accuracy landingseminar, national and internationalchampions from all three disciplinesdescribed their techniques for all to learnfrom. We hope to continue this amicableand productive relationship in the future.What’s up for next year? Directing achampionship was tougher than I hadexpected it to be, but I’ve offered myservices as director again. We'll beannouncing dates and venues soon sowatch the PPGComps website and Skywings.Meanwhile, we are planning a newprogramme of local Discovery-type eventsat paramotor clubs across the UK, withBritish Paramotor Team members givingtraining seminars in various aspects ofcompetition, and setting practice tasks forpilots to understand whether competitionis for them or not. We'll be contacting clubs,and particularly Club Coaches, soon to setsome of these up for early summer nextyear. Please come along to find out what it’sall about – or ask your club coach to get intouch with us.I must thank all of the team who helpedmake the event happen. Andy Phillips led afantastic team of marshals who ensuredeverything ran smoothly and did sterlingwork training up a new generation ofmarshals; scorer Colin Baker did his usualmagic trick of producing scores faster thananyone expects them; and our committeeChairman and Event Director Paul Smith,and the other committee members, put intireless work in organising the event.Finally, my congratulations to the pilots,particularly Michel Carnet for an incredible13th British National ParamotorChampionship win, Mark Morgan (2nd) andDylan Marsh (3rd). Full results are atReport by Barney TownsendI have been flying a paraglider for morethan seven years now but I'm new toparamotors. When Andy Shaw announcedGreen Dragons would be hosting the eventI welcomed it, but when he asked mycommitment to attend I was not so sure. Iwas anxious about being intimidated bymore experienced competitionpilots and not sure if I wasready to compete yet. Butafter flying with MarkMorgan, Paul Martinand Danny Kettleone weekend Idecided to give ita go, thinkingthat it couldonly improvemy flyingskills.Neverthelessthe idea wasquite daunting.There was a lot tolearn and preparefor! All my worries faded awayon Day 1. Mark had providedme with a list of materials required. Iturned up at Green Dragons on Thursday,built a map board, fixed the reserve andspeed bar, and had a generic briefing onthe tasks. Thanks to Mark for helping, andPaul and Andy for providing materials. In the Discovery Group we had completeflexibility. Barney explained that we wouldget additional briefings and help for eachtask as and when needed. We'd also beassigned one of the competition pilots asmentor, could make our own decisions toparticipate in tasks if we felt safe to do so,and could cut short or abandon a task ifwe felt conditions weren't suitable ourlevel. That was exactly what happened throughthe competition. Everybody was friendly,helpful, approachable and eager toshare their knowledge andexperience. The organisers,director, marshals,pilots and spectatorswere just like onegreat big family.Every moment ofthe event waseducational,each taskchallenging thepilot withdifferent flyingskills andmethods. It wasgreat to be briefedon a task set forBritish champions, toanalyse the task andconditions, to plan and re-plan the task and to execute it, allwith help and guidance from some of thevery best. What a confidence-booster, notleast through understanding the risk-reward ratio in flight. Thanks to the event I now have morepurpose to fly and practice now. I hope tosee you all as a newcomer in next year’sevent. Thank you to everybody involved inmaking this such a lovely event, forlooking after me, and for all your genuinehelp and advice. The Discovery GroupNEW PILOT FAHRI OZDEMIR POINTS OUT THE ADVANTAGES Fahri Ozdemir: ' Everymoment of the event was educational …’Photo: Paul SmithThe UK fielded a smaller team thannormal, some pilots having been unable tomake it due to personal circumstances –congratulations to Ric and Chloe Womersleyon their wedding. The team was made upof Paul Martin, Mark Morgan and newmember Paul 'Yorky' Martin – yes, it did getconfusing having two Paul Martins! – in thePF1 (footlaunch) category, and Danny Kettlein the PL1 (trike) category. Paul Smithtravelled as team leader with his son Aidenas team assist.The team arrived before the official practicedays so we could get to know the area.Czech maps are a slightly different formatto the normal UK OS maps, but we soon gotto grips with the navigation and the comparea. The days prior to the official practicesaw good conditions and we flew in theearly morning and in the evening to avoidthe midday sun. There were two formalpractice tasks, a limited-time turnpointhunt and a limited-fuel out-and-return task,in lively thermic conditions. These allowedthe organisers to test their briefings,limited-fuelling process and scoring, etc.The official opening ceremony on August19th, with nearly 100 pilots from a total of 11countries, passed off well despite the threatof rain. The rain came later in theafternoon and we were stood down until5am the following morning. The next daywasn't much better and we had to wait forthe rain to clear.From here on there would be eveningbriefings for the team leaders. We'd be up at5:30 ready for quarantine planning at 06:30,then straight into the task that had beenbriefed the previous evening. This wasfollowed by the checking of tracklogs andscores, and preparing equipment and mapsfor the next task.On the first task – pure navigation – one ofthe Spanish trike team threw his reserveshortly after take-off due to another pilotlooking at his map instead of the pilotsaround him. He suffered a broken rib in aheavy landing. Alex Matéos took the leadafter winning the task; he eventually wenton to win every single task.The next four tasks were precisionnavigation with declared average speeds;area triangle with limited fuel; precisiontake-off with bowling landing; andprecision take-off.Task 6 was planned to be a limited fuel(3kg) pure eco task, with a task windowfrom 13:30 - 20:00. Some pilots chose tomake the most of the window and took offas soon as it opened, while others took offover the next hour or so. It was a boomingand very active day, which caught Polishpilot Mariusz Kozarzewski out when hetried to restart his engine in the air. He hada collapse and wasn't holding his brakes,which put him onto a spiral that he nevercame out of, resulting in his tragic death.34 OCTOBER 2017 propellerheadEuropean ParamotorChampionshipsFollowing the World Paramotor Championships held in the UK last year,August saw the European Paramotor Championships take place at Břeclavin the Czech Republic, near the Slovakian and Austrian borders.Galina VorobevaIt is not often we see a Russian team in a FAI Category 1 competition, andfemale foot-launched pilots are vastly outnumbered by male pilots. So tosee a female Russian pilot competing is a rarity indeed. Galina started outas a skydiver in the 1980s. After completing hundreds of jumps anaccident stopped her further participation in the sport. Many years latershe took up paragliding and, soon after, paramotoring. She has competedin many local competitions in Russia where each region holds three orfour events every year, but the Břeclav European Championships was herfirst FAI comp. Amongst female paramotor pilots Galina is an inspiration.Report by Richard ShawPhoto: Armin Appel 2017 35I was unfortunate enough to witness thisand immediately landed to provideassistance. A few other pilots also landed tohelp, but despite our efforts we were unableto save him. Most of the pilots wereunaware of the developing situation untilthey landed back at the airfield at the endof the task. Everybody was in shock and tasks werecancelled the following day, and atsunrise a minute's silence was held inMariusz's memory. All the pilots andteams came together to pay theirrespects, followed by a very emotionalmemorial flight by the majority of pilots,led by the Polish team, from the airfieldto the accident site and back.The Polish team wanted the competitionto continue, and following a day’s restnearly all the pilots made the decision tocarry on. Two further tasks were set,precision take-off and quarantineddeclared-time snake navigation.Despite the small UK team of only fourpilots, and not having pilots in all classes,the UK came 4th in the overall nationsranking against some of the larger teamswho had up to 19 pilots. The wholecompetition had been very well organised,with scores coming out quickly followingcompletion of the tasks. August 26th sawan emotional closing ceremony andprizegiving, followed by the start of thelong drive back to the UK.PF1 (footlaunch)1 Alex Matéos France2 Marie Matéos France3 Pierre Lefebvre France6 Paul Martin GB25 Mark Morgan GB35 Paul Martin (Yorky) GBPL1 (trike)1 Wojciech Bogdal Poland2 Gabriel Toman Czech Republic3 Francois Blanc France7 Danny Kettle GBNations1 France2 Poland3 Czech4 GB5 Spain6 ItalyFull results and tracklogs are at Report by Paul MartinDanny Kettle prepares to launch in the PL1 Class Team GB at the Europeans (L-R): Mark Morgan, 'Yorkshire Paul' Martin, the other Paul Martin and Danny KettlePhotos: Paul SmithPlease send letters for inclusion in the Airmail pages to or by post to Skywings Magazine, 39 London Road, Harleston Norfolk IP20 9BH.Not amused!I was shocked and appalled when I received my September issueof Skywings in the mail the other day. The front cover depicts aparaglider pilot looking completely terrified and out of control. Howdoes publishing this picture on the front cover of our nationalmagazine promote paragliding as a fun, safe and responsiblesport? It may seem OK to members but I can assure you anyonelooking in from the outside won’t think so. Family and friends thatsaw my magazine questioned why I participated in this sport andsaid that they would not want to give it a go after seeing thepicture. This is the most irresponsible bit of publishing I have everseen. Please cancel my subscription as I don’t want to beassociated to a magazine that doesn’t represent our sport in apositive and responsible manner. Scott Kyllo, Close enough!These photos of me flying Longridge Fell were taken by DeanCrosby. The rainbow – and the rain! – was chasing me down theFell. What I didn’t see was the big cloud on my right hand side,building very quickly and heading my way. I was concentrated onthe rainbow and the rain and noticed this a bit later than I shouldhave. I landed by my car and stuffed the wing into it just as itstarted raining!Graham Jones, 36 OCTOBER 2017 efli revcoe r OCTOBER 2017 37• Ready to fly• Alti, inertial vario &amp; GPS• Thermal &amp; wind assistant• Colour maps &amp; terrain• 3D airspace &amp; warnings• Fully configurable• Upgradable to Oudie 4• All Basic features• Competitions &amp; tasks• FAI triangles• Multiple profilesIMPORTED BY FLYBUBBLE01273 812442Cloudbase Mayhem PodcastsI just wanted to give an unashamed shoutout to Gavin McClurg for his excellentpodcasts. For those who have not yetdiscovered this, Gavin’s CloudbaseMayhem podcasts are a series ofinterviews with the leading lights of free-flying. From the extraordinaryexperiences of legendary pioneers likeLarry Tudor and Bruce Goldsmith to thewisdom of Jocky Sanderson; the wit ofHugh Miller and the unique insights ofmodern day stars such as Chrigel Maurer,it’s a real treasure trove of knowledge andentertainment and a tour de force fromour amazing sport. No slouch himself,Gavin is a leading exponent of vol-bivouacand adventure flying, having pioneerednew routes in the Alaskan mountainrange for his film North of Known. Withthese credentials, and his gravelyauthentic American adventure-dudedrawl, who better to interview the greatand the good? Now approaching 50episodes, Cloudbase Mayhem podcasts arefreely available, on iTunes and Stitcher,but there is a request for a donation of $1per podcast, if you can afford it! Worthevery cent, if only for those long drives toflying sites or airport transits. What pre-flight coaching session could possiblycompete? Search Cloudbase Mayhem oniTunes and Stitcher, or go direct toColin Fargher, CP sunsetHaving only passed my CP a couple of months ago with Mark Leavesley Aviation, I waslucky enough to have a chap – Paul Crawley from Flint – capture this picture (below) ofme flying off Moel Famau in North Wales against a background of the hills of Snowdonia.A lot of the lads who have been flying for years have said they’ve never been luckyenough to get a picture like that … and I go and get one after a couple of months! Martin Dyer, 38 OCTOBER 2017 Advance Sigma 10 DAVID SOUTHERN REPORTSI have flown or owned each of the Sigmaseries since the Sigma 6 and currently owna Sigma 9 which has proved very popularin the area where I do most of my flying.The Sigma 9 has been described as beingsomething of a departure with more of afreestyle character than its forerunners. Itis also, in terms of pilot demand, a 'low C'and quite close to its high-end B stablematethe Iota. The Iota was launched around sixmonths after the Sigma 9 and both glidersappeal to similar pilots. Partly for thisreason the Sigma 10 has been positioned asa 'mid C', and Advance’s own publicitystresses that the 10 is a notch up from the9 in terms of pilot demand. I will return tothis point later.DesignAdvance's product cycle is, in the main,three years. Around 12 months before a newglider is due to go to the market the designteam meets to discuss the project andconsider feedback from pilots on thecurrent model. The core design team for theSigma 10 was made up of Silas Bosco,whose first Advance project had been theSigma 9, and Christian Proschek, whosefirst assignment had been the recentlylaunched and highly praised Omikron acrowing. Into this mix was added HannesPapesh’s design software for whichAdvance hold a licence. The initial brief wasto produce a slightly higher-end glidersuitable for the traditional Sigma pilot. Asalways, a good number of prototypes weremade and discarded before the test pilotteam allowed the Sigma 10 to go forcertification and production. What design features have beenincorporated in the Sigma 10 and,specifically, what changes have beenintroduced from the Sigma 9 to take the 10higher up the C scale?First and foremost, the flat aspect ratio –generally a good indicator of howdemanding a glider is to fly – has beenstretched to 6.16 from the Sigma 9’s 5.85:1.Secondly, the Sigma 10 has six more cells(now 66) and the cell openings arecorrespondingly smaller, with a notableshark nose. Thirdly, a great deal of workhas gone into creating a smoother uppersurface and leading edge, reducing wrinklesby the orientation of the weave in the clothand, internally, creating 'sliced diagonals'. Finally there are C wires extending partwayacross the chord. This feature allows fewerattachment points, a consequent reductionin line length and a correspondingimprovement in performance by reducingdrag. Advance also found that the C wiresallowed for better positioning of the C tabsand, along with two D lines, gave bettercollapse resistance. Each of these featuresincrementally improve the Sigma 10'sperformance. The Sigma 10 sports C handles. This is nota feature which improves performance,especially in three-liners, however Csteering is regarded by most pilots as agiven for gliders in this class. Indeed theAdvance team were reputedly split as totheir benefit. I found them to be excellenton transitions where slight inputs areneeded to maintain course. They are nothowever meant for radical turns!Unlike the Sigma 9, the Sigma 10 hasmini-ribs, the design team having foundthat performance benefited by theirinclusion over prototypes without. TheSigma 10 comes in five sizes compared tothe four of its predecessor. Advance saythis is to allow the pilot to choose theperfect size for him/her. I flew the 29,certificated at 105 - 128kg, with a podharness at 115kg all-up. Advance also citean 'ideal weight range' of 110 - 125kg. The Sigma is a mid-light glider, the fivesizes ranging from 4.45kg to 5.45kg. The 29model I flew is slightly lighter than mysimilar-sized Sigma 9. Porcher Skytex32g/m2 is used extensively apart from theleading edge which is the more durable38m/m2. Advance have discontinued theceramic rings used for brake lines andreplaced them with traditional pulleys. Thewhole package comes with the excellentComfortpack in a choice of sizes.In the airI was offered the opportunity to test theSigma 10 at the end of June. Flying wise ithad been a miserable month in the northSwiss manufacturer Advance, with its industry-wide reputation for producing excellent wings of the highestquality, needs no introduction here. I have to admit that for some time I have been looking forward to the latestiteration of the Sigma series. The original Sigma was the very ﬁrst glider Advance produced, back in 1989, and onewhich became their ﬂagship model for competent XC pilots.All photos: Advance/Felix WölkNext >